


June 2008 Requests

by Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Snippets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-30
Updated: 2008-06-30
Packaged: 2018-01-02 22:29:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As it says on the tin</p>
            </blockquote>





	June 2008 Requests

J'onn could, if he chose, go to Mars to do this. Sometimes he did.

Most of the time, it felt more important to do it here, on his second home world. To stand in the middle of the arid plains of one of the many nations of Earth, and just ... reach. He was careful when he did it, anchoring his sense of self firmly in the minds of Arthur, Bruce, and others he trusted.

The desert's warmth kept him nestled, the sands shifting with the wind, and let him feel the masses of humanity out there. He knew if he opened himself to everything, he ran a risk of being annihilated as a functional being. But this little bit...he needed it, to connect.

A child, reveling in the love of its parent. A young couple, arguing for the first time and realizing it, tempers cooling fast. An old woman, sitting beside the man she's loved for fifty years as he slips to peacefulness. A young woman, exultant over a promotion. A soon to be father, silent in awe of the moment.

These, and more, were filtered in, allowing J'onn to have that view of what he fought so hard for.

There was justice to be served, but it was the mass of higher emotions that J'onn turned to when the world threatened to overwhelm him.

* * *

He sat beside her bed, despite that the closeness caused his entire psyche to flinch. Having Fernus unleashed had been the worst thing J'onn had ever faced on Earth, as he had almost been responsible for the death of a second race. But losing Aubrey, knowing that he could never again feel her against him, share that passion...and his entire body flinched at the burn of such thoughts...was a loss he considered unjust to them both.

Once again, he cursed the Guardians for their meddling in his race's history. Surely there had to have been a way.

One that would not have cost J'onn that tender bond of love, flavored by passion.

* * *

If he had to hear, one more time, just how the JSA would have done things, Hal Jordan thought he might puke. That damn brat of a girl...just because she thought the JSA was so great. And Flash wasn't helping, mooning over her the way he did. The cocky Green Lantern was so sick and tired of it and wondering just why in hell he was still sticking it out. Even Fishboy had laughed at him, because he knew he was the one who should lead the team.

Dammit, he had good ideas, and he was more than willing to prove them all wrong!

As he stormed out of the cave, his ring pricked at him that trouble wasn't far down the coast, and he shoved his irritation down to go deal with that.

Except, when he got there, it was being handled. Some of his irritation had risen back up when he saw that other Green Lantern in the middle of it all. But the part of Hal Jordan which was tactically smart soon saw it.

The elder Lantern, for all his age, was one hell of a fighter. He was handling five androids, wielding the ring like he was born to it. Minimal energy expended, no fancy constructs when a simple grab and smash let him use one android against another. Hal watched, wanting to be in the thick of it, but holding back since the man seemed to have it in hand.

When the smoke cleared, the elder Lantern gathered the pieces and headed for the nearest science labs, leaving Hal to consider just how easily it had been done.

Maybe, just maybe, Black Canary had a point. Maybe the JSA weren't dusty old legends. Maybe even Hal Jordan could learn from their examples.

* * *

She rested against the brick wall to catch her breath, struggling to make her heart come under her control. She'd done it, she'd put on the costume, the wig, and gone out into the streets, found trouble, and beaten them all. She hadn't stayed long enough to see the cops get there, skying out as soon as she'd heard the sirens, but she had managed to be what she wanted to be, her mother be damned.

She wanted to crow to the world about becoming the new Black Canary, wanted everyone in forsaken Star City to know just who she was now. Damn her mother for dragging them here, where she didn't know anyone. In Gotham, when she'd just been getting in scraps and helping her dad's cases, she'd had friends she could tell about it.

Here, there was only her mother, and she couldn't tell her. Not without a fight. 

No, the rookie vigilante would just have to swallow her need to share it and wait. She'd be big, the press would talk, and then she'd just tell her mother to shove it and face facts.

There was a new Black Canary and this one was here to stay.

* * *

As hard as it could be to find time for everything in their lives, both Pieter and Michael knew the value of making time for each other.

At twilight, or near enough to it, Michael would set his spheres to diagnostics, and Pieter would gather Charlie from his perch. Both men would quietly walk outside, and set Charlie free to hunt the coming night, walking so close as to only barely avoid touching.

If each sometimes turned their thoughts in these quiet moments to tragic pasts, that was to be understood by the other. A small droop of Pieter's shoulders, or a tic along Michael's jaw, and the other man would just reach out, brushing a hand over their partner's.

So many moments like these, mostly in vocal silence, yet speaking volumes of their commitments.

It was just one small ritual to cement what they shared.

* * *

He watched as Roy handled life as a dad, as a Titan, as a League member with ease, and wondered, just how he did it.

He watched as Roy melded back into life with them all, treating them all as he always had, from kissing on Donna here and there (no matter what, they managed to save that teasing flirtation) to hassling Wally endlessly. Except when he and Wally and Garth put their heads together over parenting, and the three fathers showed a solidarity that went beyond the juvenile pranking.

He watched as Roy arrived late here and there, trace of lipstick still on his lips, and wondered just when that would blow up. It had to; it was Kendra, Hawkgirl, carrier of Carter Hall's soulmate.

Then he stepped back and he hated himself, for wishing ill on the happiness Roy had found.

He felt bitter inside, watching it all and never stepping forward to let Roy be the way he had always been with him.

Nightwing flew alone, and the days of Speedy at Robin's back were long gone.

It had to be that way, so that he would always have a Roy to watch grow to new heights.

* * *

It always drove him insane. From the first days of the Titans, Dick had felt this anger over Roy's inability to see how good he really was. Yeah, Roy was cocky and talked a load of bullshit about how great he was, but Dick saw underneath it all.

Dick saw the scared little boy who would never be good enough in his own eyes.

So, when Roy was among the League at last, Dick made the trip. He'd heard Roy was living out west again, and found out where.

When he showed up, and Roy actually opened the door, Dick looked him square in the eye.

"You think you're still not good enough?" he demanded.

Roy had to stare, slowly smiling as he realized this was congratulations from the one friend he'd admired more than any other.

"Yeah...cause I seem to have lost someone along the way," he retorted.

"I'm right here, right?" Dick asked, and his voice went smoke-warm with a desire to have what they'd shared before.

Roy reached out, pulled him in, and shut the door so they could find each other all over again.

* * *

Rogue had been in a downright rotten mood all day, and just couldn't shake it. None of the rest of the team really wanted to brave her wrath to get to the bottom of it, even if she had known for certain what was plaguing her.

She opted to go out, maybe to shop, more likely to just watch the real people the humans that didn't have catastrophic powers, be happy in their normal little lives.

She paused in front of a window showing the latest hip clothes on a plastic mannequin, the kind a boy of about 16 might wear.

Cody would have looked cute in them.

The thought struck her so sharply, that the tears were falling before she could react.

She turned from the window, and Remy was there. Her faithful beau had followed her stealthily. As his arms closed around her, she wanted to push him away, so he wouldn't be like Cody.

"No, cher...grieve if y' must, but ol' Remy's not givin' up."

She didn't have the will not to obey, and let him take care of her.


End file.
